Whistler has been castrated and he has also had a bad ear, (both ends of dog) so now his ears are a bit greasy , when he had the ear stuff in he shakes his head a lot! and his other bits are still pink! when would it be safe to give him a shower? mainly his ears rather than other end? He is quite smelly, bouncing about all over the place but you can definately smell him under the desk!

I wouldnt like to say - why not ring the vets and ask??  It may be a good idea just to bathe his top end (if you know what i mean) or to give him a sponge bath??

Sorry i cant be more help

Yes I thought I might I dont want him to think Im being fussy. But he does hustle bad ear and a buster coller has kept all the mess in his ear area!

i was told by the vets for my dogs that it's best to wait till the stitches come out before bathing but i could sponge down any bits that were really dirt/smelly away from the area.

I think you would be lucky if your dog lets you bath his top end with a sore ear, mine go running in the opposite direction

Just clean his ears with a hypoallergenic babywipe after a couple hours after his ear medication. If he is licking his 'lack' of manhood alot then he may need a collar. Forget the horrible hard collars as the soft collars are just as good http://www3.shopping.com/-dog+surgery+collar

Thanks for that!

Whistler,
If he was mine I would bath him, just make sure you do not get any water in his ears. It will not harm the stitches just clean them up a little.
If you had had stiches you would bath and keep them clean, just the same.

Denese

> If you had had stiches you would bath and keep them clean, just the same.

Maybe things have changed since I worked as a nurse but patients could shower provided their wounds were covered with a poly bag taped around the edges to keep it dry! My husband and daughter both had operations in the last 5 years and it was still the same then, until stitches come out keep the wounds dry! If the would gets wet it does interfer with healing and could risk infection! Even when we cleaned wounds we dried them before putting on a clean dressing. I certainly wouldn't bath a dog with stitiches.

The wound from castration would be well tucked underneath - the area would only get wet if you did it deliberately.

I would certainly bath carefully - he'll appreciate not being smelly! :)

rjs,
I expect it dependes on how clean things are! I have never found it has interfered with healing. Quite the opposite.
If the wound looks a little red, a little savlon in the water will clean it. You can't beat hygiene, and cleanliness. if there is smell there is bacteria.

Denese

> If the wound looks a little red, a little savlon in the water will clean it. You can't beat hygiene, and cleanliness. if there is smell there is bacteria.

I agree totally BUT washing with a dilute solution of savlon is different to having a bath! I also believe that you can to be too clean and hygenic, if you don't get contact with germs your body has difficulty in fighting infection. The original post, if I read it correctly says that the dog has smelly ears which could be treated without bathing the whole dog.